


Opening salvo

by DarkShadeless



Series: Overseer Sar [30]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Canon Compliant, and how they influence the galaxy regardless, as bigger players pass them by, faint spoilers for post KotET content, the life and times of non-main characters, will you look at that, wow this is actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-30
Updated: 2018-06-30
Packaged: 2019-05-31 03:16:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15110681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkShadeless/pseuds/DarkShadeless
Summary: Before Umbara, before Copero and Nathema, before Iokath, there is this.





	Opening salvo

**Author's Note:**

> As I've hinted in the tags, we're entering post KotET territory here. Those of you who have played it know what that means, or will mean. I will change some things as they suit me but not everything. You'll definitely recognize what's going on.  
> So, the tone is a little more serious in this short story. Just as a fair warning.
> 
> Spoilery trigger warnings in the bottom notes.

 

 

The first time it happens, absolutely no one sees it coming. As uneasy as it makes Theron, that’s the long and short of it.

No one expected it. Not him, not Lana, no one.

It’s not a secret unrest is stirring on Zakuul. After a hundred years of prosperity, carried by their Eternal Emperor and built upon resources partially belonging to the Sith Empire, they’ve now come out the other end of a war on the losing side. Their ruler, that many still revere and the rest of the galaxy reviles, is dead. Their society is in shambles and slow to recover.

Commander Raan does his best but the galaxy is large. Even with the Eternal Fleet at his call, they can’t help everyone. A golden age is unsustainable in the burgeoning crisis that threatens to starve planets like Tatooine and Voss entirely. The truth is, Zakuul is one of many and it isn’t as bad off as others.

When the assassination attempt comes, it slips right past the Alliance’s defences.

 

\---

 

Findre Garul isn’t a soldier. He’s not a Knight either, just a regular citizen of Zakuul. Doesn’t have a spark of Force sensitivity.

What he has is a sister. A sister that does have the Force. Baran goes out to fight for their Empire, for justice, every day. It’s all she wants in life, to protect their people.

When the Outlander wakes from his carbonite sleep, the murderer of their Emperor set free once more, Baran is at the Spire.

She doesn’t come home.

In hindsight, that’s the stone that sets off the landslide.

 

Findre spends the descent of the Eternal Empire into chaos in a numb sort of shock. Everything is happening too fast, one catastrophe chasing the next. Between rising crime rates and the threat of terrorism, the Alliance looms like the shadow of death.

Emperor Arcann disappears, another ruler lost to the Outlander’s hand, only to return at his side, fighting his own blood. Fighting them. His people. The people he swore to protect. Just like their Emperor’s consort.

They’ve been abandoned by most of the yet living members of their royal house.

When the Outlander comes to steal the Throne and the Fleet in one fell swoop, all seems lost. Who will guard them now? What do they have left? Once a shining paradise, the people of Zakuul now struggle to make ends meet.

In honor of his sister’s memory, every morning Findre gets up to go to the relief effort center. There's barely any pay to be had, there, but help is desperately needed. He works until closing. Then he returns home, he eats his ration bar and goes to sleep.

The flood of people that require aid seems never-ending.

 

Finally, news reaches them that what remains of their Knights and skytroopers might well be claimed by the Alliance as well. The despair that takes hold of those that had still had hope the situation may stabilize is palpable.

Findre doesn’t rage.

He goes to work, he gets home, he eats.

He lies awake until the sun rises again.

 

Where is the justice in this? How is this _right_?

It isn’t. But how could it be, with those who’d serve it dead or gone?

When he closes his eyes, he can still see her, Baran, impossibly big to him at the time in her new armor. So sternly disappointed her little brother would beg for her to stay with him.

_Justice doesn’t happen on its own Findre. The gods just show the way. The rest is up to us._

 

The next morning, Findre doesn’t go to work.

He scrapes his meagre savings together and buys himself a blaster.

 

\---

 

The scorch mark the assassin leaves on the wall behind their Commander’s work station is exactly one foot wide of where his head would have been.

Theron might as well have measured it. He’s been staring at it long enough.

_How did we miss this?_

If Commander Raan wasn’t a Jedi, if he hadn’t felt the threat himself at the last moment- It’s unthinkable.

Lana has their entire spy network in overdrive, digging up every last shred of information but hindsight is fifty-fifty. Obviously, they have blind spots.

Maybe it’s time to put some effort into reviving his old contacts. It certainly can’t hurt.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Emotional build-up that drives a character to commit an off-screen assassination attempt


End file.
